Simultaneous Quantification of Vitamin A and Derivatives in Cosmetic Products by Liquid Chromatography with Ultraviolet Detection

Abstract

Vitamin A (retinol) and some of its derivatives are a group of fat-soluble compounds used in cosmetic products as bioactive ingredients. Therefore, it is necessary to perform the quality control of final product to ensure their efficacy and safety. A simple and rapid method to determine retinol, retinal, retinyl acetate, retinyl propionate and retinyl palmitate in cosmetics is presented here. The method is based on vortex and/or ultrasound-assisted leaching of the analytes in ethanol followed by liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. The analytical performance of the method was evaluated. It has shown high levels of linearity, at least up to 100 µg mL−1; high precision with RSD values below 14% and high sensitivity with low MLODs ranging between 0.3 × 10−4 and 5.9 × 10−4 % w/w, which are enough to monitor these compounds in cosmetic products. The proposed method was successfully applied to seven commercial cosmetic samples to detect and quantify the target analytes, showing the method is suitable for its employment for quality control in cosmetic industries. Cosmetic samples were spiked at two levels of concentration and recovery values around 100% were obtained, showing no significant matrix effects and, therefore, external calibration was adequate for this determination.